Plans announced for the Dorset BBC Breakfast Programme to be Launched in July 2013!

Fri 03 May 2013

At last positive progress on the re-launch of the FM radio breakfast programme for Dorset!
Below are extracts from the minutes of a committee meeting on 26th April, 2013 with Oliver Letwin MP, Jason Horton and Chris Carnegy of the BBC.
Dorchester Studio Expansion. A contract has been signed to expand on the ground floor to provide 3 additional rooms for a new Studio, an Operations Room and an Office/Reception area. The upstairs facilities are retained.

Studios will have the latest digital technology. Main link (pipe) will be 10 Mbits/sec. o Building work to be completed late May/Engineering work by late June.
Staffing: Chris Carnegy announced that Julie Massiter has accepted the post of Senior Broadcast Journalist and Team Leader for the Dorchester Studios. She is expected to start work on 7th May. o Interviews for the other three posts are in progress with decisions expected to be made by 3rd May.

The total number of staff for Dorset would be 5 fulltime plus the Political Reporter shared with BBC Radio Solent, the Dorset Web Site reporter and Simon Clemison – the Video Journalist reporter. o In answer to a query, Jason Horton confirmed that the BBC does encourage work experience and would hope that it would be available in Dorchester sometime in the future. o Launch Date/plans: Early July, 2013. The Breakfast programme will be broadcast five days per week while the Big Dorset Brunch programme on a Saturday morning will continue. o Sundays will broadcast a standard Radio Solent output as before.

Other issues: There will also be a permanent satellite linked vehicle based in Dorchester. o It was confirmed that there are no plans to increase the geographic coverage on FM (103.8Mhz), but the aim is to do so with the full launch of DAB. BBC has already been consulted regarding requirements for Dorset. Hope is for several transmitters to cover the county. o Anyone can report to the Dorchester team on Emergency issues, who will try and give appropriate cover – they plan to route local emergency information by Post Code to the appropriate radio stations e.g. BBC Devon, BBC Somerset etc. Jason Horton will work with Dorset County Council and Dorset District Councils to ensure the Emergency Issues are addressed.